Both patients and physicians were frustrated by the lack of accurate tracking of an individual’s pain history—particularly with chronic pain conditions. The Lyrica team identified that they could solve a key need that would help patients and physicians if they could have an easier and more accurate way to track pain levels in real time. And one of Pfizer’s strategic priorities was to strengthen the company’s engagement with patients and physicians through digital. The long term goal would be to turn Lyrica, when paired with a wearable, into a solution that is much more effective (than its generic counterparts) in terms of pain management. Beyond therapeutic benefits, Lyrica patients had the opportunity to take control of their condition with a better understanding of pain, its patterns, and the constellation of parameters it impacts.

We deployed not a user experience, but a human experience—taking into account the patients’ journey not only through the system, but the disease. Those measurable insights led to a friction-less approach in patients’ management of their chronic pain condition. That means there’s a wearable that can track what patients are experiencing in real time and sync up to their mobile devices –creating a true picture of their disease and life—one that could be understood and shared with others.

The wearable design enables Lyrica patients to track three things manually: Intensity of pain (0-10), intensity of anxiety (0-10), and the quality of their sleep (1-5). The wearable automatically tracks activity in terms of steps and distance as well as length of sleep and quality as measured by arm movement. The app allows a visual record of all measurements to be viewed to show patterns and triggers between the different entry data points. For example, these patterns not only change behavior but can change lives by enabling patients to recognize a pattern between one parameter and another (eg: activity and pain), and make lifestyle choices accordingly.

To date, hundreds of LYRICA patients in BRAZIL and Mexico are using BeLive with great success in better managing and understanding their pain condition. The latest stats on the BeLive program… 2,458 days of activity; 8.1M steps tracked; 67k minutes walked; 4,865 self-reported scores.

Following this launch, the goal is to provide this solution for every Lyrica patient around the world and ultimately for any other patient suffering from another condition where proactively monitoring their disease symptoms would be of benefit for them.

The BeLive program is just the beginning for wearable technology in health…giving many a new understanding of their condition, a new resolve for taking control –better self-management. The technology represents a transformation in health and new hope for millions with other medical conditions. This is just the beginning.